Workers stage protest to seek resolution of demands

Srinagar, May 1: On International Labour Day, also known as May Day, hundreds of workers from different fields held various rallies in the summer capital to press for resolution of their demands.

Scores of workers, daily wagers including Asha workers, PHE Daily wagers, and PDD workers, observed the day in city centre Lal Chowk. These workers said Kashmir has a history of struggles for rights of workers. They said on the day, they remembered the artisans of Zaldagar Kashmir who struggled for the rights of the working class. They said they also pay tributes to workers of Chicago who made sacrifices in 1886 for the welfare of the labour class.

Dilshada Malik, the state president of Asha workers, said that they are working on the frontline while the government has always sidelined them.

“On this day, we remember those who laid their lives for us, and we also want to remind the administration about our issues related to our wages and other issues,” Malik said.

PHE workers also held a protest in the PHE headquarters in Srinagar to observe Labour Day. Scores of PHE daily workers assembled there amid slogans.

Sajad Parray, chairman of Kashmir PHE Joint Employees Association said that they want to remind the government about the unfulfilled promises about their various issues.

“Be it regularisation, the minimum wage act, or other welfare issues, the promises made to us were never fulfilled. We want to remind the administration about the various committees they formed to address our issues. The recommendations by those committees were never looked into as we continue to suffer,” Parray said.

Meanwhile, scores of CPIM workers observed the day in the city center of Srinagar. “It is time to get together for our rights like minimum wages and other issues. We should use this opportunity to raise the issue of the whole labour class, be it daily wagers from all the departments or the females working as Asha workers and Anganwadi workers on the frontline,” said a CPIM worker.

At PDD Bemina complex, various works also observed the day and demanded that the issue of daily wagers in the department should be addressed.